Question

U.S. Civilian Labor Force (thousands)
Year	Labor Force		Year	Labor Force
2007	153,918		2012	155,628
2008	154,655		2013	155,151
2009	153,111		2014	156,238
2010	153,650		2015	157,957
2011	153,995		2016	159,640

Click here for the Excel Data File

(a) Make a line graph of the U.S. civilian labor force data.

Line Graph A	Line Graph B	Line Graph C	Line Graph D

• Line Graph A

• Line Graph B

• Line Graph C

• Line Graph D

(b) Describe the trend (if any) and discuss possible causes.

Trend is  (Click to select)  positive  negative  . There seems to be an  (Click to select)  increase  decrease  in the rate of growth over the past few years.

(c) Fit three trend models: linear, exponential, and quadratic. Which model would offer the most believable forecasts? (You may select more than one answer. Click the box with a check mark for the correct answer and double click to empty the box for the wrong answer.)

• Linearchecked
• Quadraticunchecked
• Exponentialunchecked

(d) Make forecasts using the following fitted trend models for years 2017-2019. (Round your answers to the nearest whole number.)

t	Linear	Quadratic	Exponential
11
12
13

Answer 1

(a) The line graph is:

(b) Trend is  (Click to select)  positive . There seems to be an  (Click to select)  increase in the rate of growth over the past few years.

(c) Quadratic model would offer the most believable forecasts.

(d)

t	Linear	Quadratic	Exponential
11	158608	161301	158541
12	159192	163354	159129
13	159776	165653	159719